May 17 (V7N) - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, responded to the recent regional visit by stating that the individual he referred to was not truthful in claims about establishing peace through power.

“He said that he wanted to use power for peace, he lied. He and the US administration used power for massacre in Gaza, for waging wars in any place they could,” Khamenei said on Saturday during a televised meeting with teachers, according to AP.

Khamenei asserted that the US has provided Israel with 10-ton bombs to "drop on Gaza children, hospitals, houses of people in Lebanon and anywhere else when they can."

Reiterating his long-standing position against Israel, Khamenei, who holds ultimate authority on Iranian state matters, said, “Definitely, the Zionist regime is the spot of corruption, war, rifts. The Zionist regime that is lethal, dangerous, cancerous tumor should be certainly eradicated, and it will be." He further stated that the US has imposed a pattern on Arab nations preventing them from acting without US support.

“Surely this model has failed. With efforts of the regional nations, the US should leave the region, and it will leave," Khamenei said.

Meanwhile, regional leaders were convening in Baghdad on Saturday for the annual Arab League summit, where the ongoing conflict in Gaza was anticipated to be a central topic. This summit follows the end of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in January.

Khamenei's remarks came after the US leader's tour of the region earlier in the week. While that visit did not result in a new ceasefire agreement for Gaza, it did garner significant attention due to meetings, including one with the new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, and promises regarding the removal of US sanctions on Syria.

END/WD/RH/